cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

Here’s the second homemade cookie recipe I promised I’d get up to the site that I did over the holidays. Applesauce cookies. Yum! And while this is a good one to eat all year round, it definitely has those fall – winter spices we’ve come to associate with the Holidays. Moms take note: with fruit, nuts and raisins in this it’s no doubt a higher than average nutritional cookie too.

There is one important baking item I want to touch on though, and I should have done this with the butter cookie recipe probably, and that is the whole discussion or school of thought about salted versus unsalted butter in baking and especially cooking recipes. Salted butter, even though most of us don’t taste the salt, is the most commonly found one at markets and convenience stores. And against popular thought, it’s the one I use.

Yes, I’m such a rebel. LMAO! Truth is I often do what’s eaisest. I usually grab the first butter I see in the market and the only butter sold at my convenience store, and that’s the common salted butter. I know, I know, all the chefs and cookbooks say use unsalted butter in baking recipes. Who’s right?

Believe it or not, I’m willing to admit I might be wrong. (Gasp!) Ok, remember I said “might”. Here’s the thing. No one who tasted my apple sauce cookies tasted salt. I also made some rugelah cookies — sorry, you will not see that recipe here any time soon. While they were tasty, something I did wrong with the recipe that I’m still figuring out, they did not come out exactly as rugelah is supposed to be, tasty as they were. When I do figure it out, I’ll put the recipe up then. As the Orson Wells wine commercial of the 70s said “no wine before it’s time”; same with my recipes.

However, of the seven people who had my butter cookies, one out of those seven tasted the salt. Interesting. Not enough to be a perfect survey or accurate barometer by any means, but it does show that some folks, especially in a more “bland” recipe (compared to this one) can taste the salt. Should one use unsalted butter then? Well here’s the opposite thing, upon researching this I’ve found discussions where people (adults and children both) who are so used to the “normal” salted butter they noticed the absense of the salt. Either they realized it was salt that was missing, or — most of them — realized something they couldn’t put their finger on was not present and didn’t like the cookies as much as those with salted butter in them.

Yeah, I know. Can’t please every palette. That’s life.

So what’s the answer? Well, I think it’s fairly obvious. If doing a simple cookie, butter cookie, sugar cookie, with a more “bland” or neutral taste it’s probably wiser to go the extra step and get the unsalted. And what about the rest? Well, I leave that up to you. (You’ll notice in my recipes I usually just say “butter”. In non-baked recipes that leaves it up to you to use margarine. In baking recipes I leave it up to you whether to make it salted or unsalted.)

As for me, I’m probably going to remain “lazy” for now and do what’s convenient — as long as no one complains or if the recipe is not so “blandish”. How much salt is in butter, you might be wondering? It varies from brand to brand, however a supposed average I’ve found repeated in my research indicates about 3/8 of a teaspoon of salt per stick, just under a half teaspoon in other words. Why is it in there in the first place? Apparently as a natural preservative.

That’s it. Class dismissed. It’s time for milk and apple sauce cookies!

Harry’s Applesauce Cookies
©2008 Harry Kenney

1-1/2 sticks butter (12 tbsps)
2-1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1 cup, packed, brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt (unless using salted butter)
1-1/2 cups applesauce (suggest chunky, natural)
1 cup dark raisins
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pinch, ground ginger
3/4 cup shaved almonds (you could use walnuts or other nuts)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Use parchment paper lined cookie sheets (if you don’t have that, then definitely grease them instead.)

In a mixer cream together butter and brown sugar. Add egg. Add applesauce. Add trest of the dry powedered ingredients. Add nuts and raisins at the end.

Place on parchment-lined sheets in one to two tablespoon sized drops. (See photos) Space about two inches apart from each other. Depending upon your oven it should take 10-14 minutes. Look for the slighest browning on the edge and do not hesitate to gingerly lift one cookie up with a metal spatula and check underneath. Makes about four dozen.

I said previously that I had made some cookies during the Christmas holidays but had forgotten to get them up here. Well here’s the first of two cookie recipes. This is one of those classic, basic cookies. The butter cookie.

Now there’s a variety of things you can do with butter cookie dough. This particular recipe is (mainly — you’ll see what I mean at the end) for use with a cookie press or cookie “gun”. If you’re a woman you probably say press. If you’re a guy, you probably call it a gun.

A versatile batter, you can also make butter cookies by rolling them out then using cookie cutters, forming them into logs, cutting them into slices and shaping them into balls (hint, keep reading). In the past I’ve had weird success with cookies, burning the easy ones, and making excellent complicated cookies (such as biscotti).

I can’t candidly tell you why because I’m not certain what I did wrong exactly. I can tell you that my four years of cooking experience since has either given me the experience or the intuition or the “something” that I had only one or two miscalulations this time. Which is actually good because I can warn you what to be aware of as well as share a tip or two.

My first tip is avoid the bottom rack. You see, we all think our oven is even. We’ve cooked roasts and casseroles and maybe even pies and cakes, and it seems even. Until you get to the cookie. Cookie batter is hyper-sensitive. Where you think there’s no difference between front and back, left and right, top or bottom of the oven, you will learn quickly there is.

The bottom rack will always mess up your cookies. Now, some people subscribe to the notion — and I know Alton Brown is one of them — that you do a “Chinese firedrill” (my words, not his) by at the half way point, taking the bottom cookie sheets and moving them to the top, any pointing right and front to turn left and back and that this assures heating. This one I don’t seem to be capable of mastering — hey if it works for you, awesome! Since it doesn’t for me, I’m confined to the two sheets at a time insted of four method.

Which reminds me of my one mistake this year and my big tip. Oddly the first batch in I used both racks. I also forgot to try the fire drill thing. I caught the bottom in time though, and took them out only slightly overly browned. Good enough for me not to serve to guests but I could eat them fine. The second batch on the top actually did burn. This purplexed me how the ones that came out fine the first time burned the second time. I realized the cookie sheet I had had in the bottom helped deflect the burn. So the third batch I put two sheets on the top and one large empty baking sheet on the bottom rack. Perfect cookies.

Another thing, I’ve seen a lot of recipes that say make the shapes and chill them. I’m sorry. I’m a normal person. More than that, I’m a person who not only cooks but cooks a lot. My refrigerator is in an almost constant state of being too full to keep sheet after cookie sheet inside them to chill. To make it worse, I have a side-by-side refrigerator. (Hey it’s the one I have and it works, I’m not about to spring for a new one to fit in cooking sheets.) I’m betting most of you have the exact same problem. So, chilling shapes? Nice idea in a perfect world. But that’s not my world so it’s not done by me.

Ah one more thing. After a bunch of cookies, it seemed my cookie gun got tired. In other words, it got clogged, I couldn’t unclog it without having to take it a part. I got inpatient and I had only a bit of batter left. So the last batch I spread out, put some dried cranberries on top, mushed them in, made them into balls and cooked two minutes longer than the rest for a totally different treat. (Told you if you read to the end you’d get rewarded. There, two recipes in one.)

One final thing. This isn’t my recipe. That is, I got it off the Internet from a location that had general recipes and no one’s name attached to this. Mind you, I did make a modification or two from the original and the Great Law of Cooking says I could therefore call these mine. But since this recipe is generally so basic and generic, and my modifications so small, let’s just leave it that way. So I’m leaving my copyright off this puppy.

Butterflies or butter cookies … let them be free!

Homemade Butter Cookies

1 cup and three tbsps (19 tbsps) butter
2-1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsps cream of tartar
salt, a pinch (unless using salted butter)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 375°F. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients seperately in the mixing bowl. Turn on mixer to beat or medium for a few minutes. Turn mixer to low. Slowly add dry ingredients a bit at a time. Mix a few more minutes. Take the bowl to the counter and start filling up your cooking press or gun and go to work.

This batter works nicely on ungreased cookie sheets. I suggest doing two at a time on the top rack and placing an empty cookie sheet on the bottom rack. Depending upon your oven it should take 6-9 minutes. Look for the slighest browning on the edge and do not hesitate to gingerly lift one cookie up with a metal spatula and check underneath. Makes roughly 100 cookies.

For a variation: Skip the cookie gun, instead take some dough, add some dried cranberries — sweetened ones are the best — and mix into dough and form tablespoon-sized balls or ovals. For these add two minutes cooking time but even more careful of not over-browning the bottoms.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Before I publish my recipes I like to do research. Especially those recipes that feature ingredients that are considered more unusual or less-known to the American palette. And definitely those that require a different technique of preparation and/or cooking. Regular visitors here already know that I want to present you with more than just a recipe but also with some knowledge and background to go with it.

I look around not only to compare the different styles of various recipes but also to determine what are the variations folks have come with as well as what are the classical, traditional components of a dish. For instance, for this vegetable tian, every recipe but one talked about slicing the veggies such that you had 1/4-inch thick disks of roughly the same size (as much as possible) laid out on it’s side and forming a single layer atop of a bed of onions.

Where as dozens and dozens conformed to the manner I just described only one, Emeril’s recipe, differed. As such it was more confusing and it stood out from the crowd as being very different, and so it seemed that must be his special variation. Then, however, after I actually made this dish (and obviously before publishing it here) I discovered a second totally different version, different from both the “norm” as well as from Emeril’s, so a third variation. The “troubling” thing is I found this at Epicurious, and it was from Bon Appétit magazine, and it was by a three-star French chef known for his Provencal dishes, Roger Verge. And so yes, he makes it a third way. So that’s Emeril’s way, Verge’s way, and the most proliferated way which is the very one I did here as well.

So which is the original? I’m in doubt, thrown off balance from that last discovery. Ok, so does this even matter you might wonder? In a big sense: no, it’s the taste that matters in the end. But as said, I like to usually establish the norm, and then figure out the variants off it. Why? Just so that I have a centering, a balance. You see I am neither a “classist” nor a “fusionist”. I’m whatever I want to be at the time I make something. But I do like a “compass” when I’m cooking — to know if I’m heading in the right direction, going a totally different direction or just going around in circles. And now my compass needle is spinning around quite haphazardly.

So much for what I can’t say definitely. Let’s brush that past and now the question becomes: What can I definitely say about this dish? Well, it’s worth the trouble, that’s number one. It will taste rather different than you are used to — and I mean that in a very good way; that’s two. Vegetarians rejoice for even though, omnivore that I am, I treated this as a side dish at my home — I had it with ham and pineapple in case you were wondering — this tian can very very much be an entree for certain. I don’t think any real vegan is going to say this is dish is just another veggie side. It’s a meal.

What else can I say? That tian is not only the name of the dish, but it’s named for the shallow casserole of the same name — buy just try finding one either to buy or just to see what it looks like, and I couldn’t. Also, Epicurious’ Food Dictionary says “a tian can be any of various dishes, but originally referred to a Provençal dish of gratineed mixed vegetables.” Now it’s time to define what a gratin is. While most famously (in America) referring to au Gratin potatoes, a gratin is “any dish that is topped with cheese or bread crumbs (this one has cheese) mixed with bits of butter (nope, I used olive oil) then heated in the oven or under the broiler (oven for this dish) until brown and crispy.” However before all of that, a tian is braised (lid on) and then it is roasted (no lid).

You’ll find my “faithful” rendition here contains, because of the “need” to keep things all about the same diameter (back to the often-made disk version): zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes and potatoes. And since I now know there are other versions where the size doesn’t matter and others where one makes two or more layers, I’m already looking forward to sometime in the future trying out one of Verge’s tians which involves eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes, olives and anchovies.

A final thought: Recall I mentioned I had this as a side with ham? If you are not having this as your main course and you are likewise having some kind of meat with it, I suggest that to get the most out of this dish you should serve it with a more neutral or understated protein. That is, while it might go fine with steak or beef or pork, I think they might be too overpowering. And so you will likely find that ham or chicken or fish would make a better pairing. But, paired or solo, you will find this a delicious and very different way to have the same old vegetables, and I think once you’ve had this you’ll have it again and again. Bon appetite!

Vegetable Tian Provencal
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin (into strips)
1 large zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch disks
1 yellow squash (of similar diameter), sliced into 1/4 inch disks
2 tomatoes (of similar diameter), sliced into 1/4 inch disks
2-3 Red Bliss potatoes (of similar diameter), sliced into 1/4 inch disks
1 glove of garlic, smashed and thinly sliced
olive oil
1/4 cup grated Gruyere (or grated Parmesan)
thyme, fresh preferred, dried otherwise, lots of it
herbes de Provence, light sprinkling (optional)
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 375°F. In small frying pan, medium heat olive oil, put in the garlic and add the onion. Do not brown, you want translucent medium-soft onions. When these are done place them into large area shallow-to-medium height casserole dish.

Now alternating, take a slice of yellow squash, tomato, potato, zucchini and place them in the dish in whatever four-set order you began with and make this a tight fit. If you have a circular dish you can try to make a circle and then an inner area. Or you can make rows. See photograph above for best visual of this. When completed, give a heavy drizzle of olive oil atop all the vegetables, salt and pepper, then a heavy dose of dried thyme or a medium (but still heavy for fresh) dose of fresh thyme on top, you can even leave the sprigs on at this stage if you wish. If you have herbs de Provence a light sprinkling of that too works out nicely.

Place in oven for 40 minutes either with a lid or covered in aluminium foil. Take out after this amount of time. If you used fresh thyme remove any sprigs (if you did dried, nothing to do here.) Sprinkle again liberally with the oil. Now cover with the cheese on top. Back in the oven, now uncovered for 30 minutes until cheese melts and gets a brown on it.

Take out. Leave cool for five minutes or so and serve. Depending on if this is your entree or a side and how much you portion out, this can serve anywhere from 2-3 (as an entree) to 4-6 (as a side).

©2008 Harry Kenney

Have you ever gone to the market, brought something home and said now what am going to do with this? I’m sure we’ve all done that. I certainly have. I’d love to say I always shop with a plan. I would have to say I partly do. I often buy food with some recipe or some idea at least vaguely in my mind. But not for the entire shopping experience; the rest of the shopping goes by what I see, what’s on sale, what looks fresh, what looks not so fresh, and what just generally grabs my attention. And this time it was the on-sale bag of frozen bay scallops.

And then I got home and thought “now what?” You see, I know what to do with the larger scallops. You know the one’s I mean that are the size and shape of big marshmellows. Pretty much you sear them on one side, then the other, bang, they’re done. Well, you’re certainly not going to do the same with what amounts to 60 or 70 miniature marshmellow-sized scallops. We’re talking just slightly larger than pencil erasers after all. So, what to do?

Eventually I recalled a dish I had served in a restaurant awhile back. Funny thing, can’t recall where I was. Could have been here in Center City Philly, but my recollection is that it was somewhere while traveling, either on business or a vacation. But I can’t put my finger on where. In any case, it was scallops in pasta with a fresh pesto sauce and some veggies. Which I began to reconstruct here and eventually got so far and did my usual, namely used that as the basis or the spring board and then went on my own from there. And what I ended up with was very delicious. (Or you wouldn’t be reading it now.)

You know I like to know about what I’m eating. And since I’m thinking you’re thinking the same way, here’s some things you should know about scallops when it comes to cooking. It’s a shellfish. Technically a marine bivalve mollusc. It’s found in cuisine everywhere, that is in Eastern and in Western cooking. You’ll find it on plates in Nagasaki to New York, from Dover to Buenos Aries, you name it. In the United States only the adductor muscles is used; elsewhere the entire scallop is often used. As to size, those large ones mentioned before, the one’s I know I’m most used to are called sea scallops and you can often get those as 20-40 per pound and are often an inch-and-a-half in diameter. Sea scallops are available fresh year-round, peaking from late spring to early fall.

Then there’s the one’s used in this particular dish, the bay scallop, which as the name implies they reside in bays. Historically these tended to come from New England. Nowadays much of the bay scallops consumed in the US are farmed in China. Bay scallops are often in the 50-90 of them in a single pound; these are usually half-an-inch in diameter. The one’s I got at the market (bad me for not looking) said on the bag, 150-200 per pound and were slightly less than a half inch in diameter, so I definitely got the super minis. In terms of season, bay scallops are available frozen purchased year-round.

Nutrition info: Scallops contain a variety of nutrients that can promote your cardiovascular health, plus provide protection against colon cancer. Scallops are actually a very good source of a very important nutrient for cardiovascular health, vitamin B12. Four ounces of scallops contains 33.3% of the daily value for vitamin B12. As with fish, scallops are a rich source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. A four-ounce of serving of scallops alone contains roughly 24 grams of protein and about 152 calories.

Healthy and delicious. What more do you want? Use the recipe I put up just the other day for Classic Basil Pesto Sauce. Enjoy.

Bay Scallops in Linguine with Pesto
©2008 Harry Kenney

8 oz bay scallops
1/2 red bell pepper, julliene then cut in half
3 oz portobellos (or other mushrooms), cut into chunks
1/2 zucchini, diced
1/2 box linguine
1 clove garlic, slightly crushed and sliced
olive oil
homemade pesto sauce

Put linguine in pot of boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve.

Olive oil into large, deep pan at medium heat. Add garlic. After a minute add red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms. Sweat well, do not brown. After several minutes, take out of pan into bowl and hold.

Place well-drained bay scallops into pan. Add little oil, turn up heat as needed. These will start extruding water. You want the water out but you don’t want to burn or even brown much the scallops at all. Toss constantly. Empty water out in sink as necessary. Add oil as necessary.

Toss veggies back from bowl into pan and mix. Remove from heat. Toss pasta into pan and mix. Add pesto sauce and mix well. Serve. Makes about 4 servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

When you think of pesto you think of — I’m willing to bet — three things. In no particular order they are: Basil, Italian and green sauce. Ok, seemingly not a revelation right? More like something that comes outta the mouth of “Captain Obvious”. Generally I agree with you. That’s exactly how it seems.

… Until you discover that while sure, pesto is usually made from basil, it doesn’t have to be. Or that when you think of pesto as “green sauce” turns out there’s another totally different sauce known as salsa verde that is actually Italian green sauce. Or that here in America when you say salsa verde, we think of Mexican, not Italian. Aha! Suddenly not everything seems so black and white — or rather, green — now, does it?

Yes this recipe here is the “original”, the traditional Italian, green, basil one. But did you know you could make a tomato pesto? A sun-dried tomato pesto? Or a red bell pepper pesto? How about one with the main ingredient being arugula or parsley or even olives? Now you get the idea.

Then there’s the whole “green sauce” thing. Yes, I would have to say pesto is the most famous “green sauce” in many ways. But — a big but — it is salsa verde that is the actual, true “green sauce” when people speak of a green sauce. The Italian version, which supposedly has been around since the days of the Roman Empire, is according to it’s Wikipedia listing made with “parsley, vinegar, capers, garlic, onion, anchovies, olive oil, and possibly mustard”. (Mind you, this is one of those Wikipedia listings that cites no references to back up the listing. But it seems logical.)

One thing for certain, here in America when we hear the term “salsa verde” we first think of Mexico, not the country shaped like a boot. And that salsa verde is made with ingredients that include tomatillos, either serrano or jalapeno chiles, cillantro, garlic and onion. Finally, on our trip around the world of green sauces, there is chimichurri from way south of the border; this sauce originally an Argentinian staple that can be found in mostly all of the other South American countries as well, is made with ingredients including oregano, parsley and jalapenos.

And one of these days, I will get around to making something with all of these. They are just too good not to do so. For today though, enjoy this classic pesto, and tomorrow, we’ll make a delicious pasta dish with it.

Classic Basil Pesto Sauce
©2008 Harry Kenney

1/4 cup pine nuts, toast them in small frying pan
2/3 – 1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup grated Parmegan
salt
pepper
1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

In food processor put in basil leaves (wash and dry then as you wuld lettuce, frist) along with a dash of salt and pepper. Give a quick couple of pulses to chop only. Then add pine nuts, garlic, cheese. Pulse sevel times til fine. Put switch to on, open feed tube or lid and add olive oil slowly to emulsify. Not too much. You want a thick paste like sauce. Taste. Leave alone or add a teaspoon of lemon juice and mix in if needed. That’s it. Doesn’t look like a lot but it’s concentrated a lot; in a pasta dish that’s enough to serve 4 to 6.

©2008 Harry Kenney

This recipe was actually going to go in two different directions from where it ended up. Recipes happen that way sometime. It was originally going to be pure vegetarian. Visits to two supermarkets and failing to find vegetable stock at either (as well my being too “lazy” or not that interested in making it myself) meant I ended up using the more traditional chicken broth as base. Also, once I got past that, I decided bacon would definitely give this a more interesting taste.

So, for those of you looking for vegetarian dishes that are robust and stand-alone and not merely “sides”, you can oh so easily alter this recipe and make it so. To make it vegetarian (as mentioned above) simply substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock. Don’t use bacon. Then either leave the rest of the recipe exactly as is, or you add still more vegetables in the form of finely diced zucchini and/or yellow squash. Also black and/or white cabbage would be nice and is often used in some parts of Italy in one of the many variants of this recipe.

Seems like a lot of ingredients maybe, but they are all pretty basic. We start of with basically a mirepoix. Then add garlic and take it out. Then to get some “meaty” flavor going, we sweat bacon and then mushrooms in with the bacon. Then the chicken broth goes in on top, the mirepoix goes back in, then the white beans and spinach. Along the way comes wine and heavy cream, and a side trip to the food processor to puree part of the mixture, giving it a creamy thick feel while still leaving the rest of the soup chunky. Add some grated parm and you have an absolutely delicious, rich, full-bodied soup for a cold winter’s day. And you have to serve this with the Toasted Polenta Cheese Rounds. That’s specifically why I did that recipe yesterday in preparation for this one today.

You probably know from my (at the moment only other soup recipe) Butternut Squash Soup with Chorizo and Rice. I like my soups a mix of creamy and chunky. Rarely all creamy. I enjoy that mixed texture much more. Speaking of things I’ve done before. You could if you wish puree the part of this soup in a blender. However, big warning … as I said in a past article called “But I Saw the TV Cook Do It” you can only do this in one of the newer, powerful blenders that come with the newer, stronger containers.

If you use an old kitchen blender, glass or plastic, the heat could crack or smash the container, causing not only a big mess but possible personal injury, so either use a food processor or one of the new blenders. And even then, still be careful. Be sure you take the feeder tube or top cap off, because of the heat, and then place a folded kitchen towel or potholder over the top when doing this. Taste is nice, but hey, safety is number one.

Oh, right I said at the start this recipe was going two ways. At first, as mentioned I was going to make this vegetarian. The second thing was, the Tuscan white beans were going to be the star of this recipe. But hey, when I added the spinach for extra taste, well, I forgot myself how much spinach colors everything. I know better, after all that’s how you get green pasta such as spinach fettucine. Now the fact this soup turned out green instead of beige with green flecks, hey, I can live with it. It’s still a very pretty looking soup, and more importantly you will love the taste of this. Every component comes out when your eating it. It’s really a nice complex taste as all these different yet very compatible tastes just burst on the taste buds.

Creamy Cannelloni-Spinach Tuscan Soup
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 small onion, diced fine
1 medium carrot, diced fine
1 celery stalk, diced fine
3 gloves garlic, smashed and sliced thin
4 slices of thick sliced bacon, sliced 1/3-1/2 inch pieces (leave out for vegetarian version)
3-4 oz of portobello mushrooms, 1/2 dices
1 quart chicken (or vegetable stock)
19 oz can cannelloni white beans, washed and drained
8-10 oz chopped frozen spinach, partially thawed (don’t drain)
1 cup dry white wine
1 half pint heavy cream
1 small or 1/2 a medium-sized bay leaf
1 tbsp dried oregano
salt
pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Olive oil in the bottom of a large soup pot on medium heat. Put in the onion, carrot and celery and sweat in pan, keep stirring and don’t brown. After about five minutes, add the garlic and continue to sweat. After another two or three minutes, take this out and reserve in a dish on the side.

Turn heat up to medium-high. Bacon in, sweat, again do not brown, get it to where it’s softened and going translucent. About three minutes. Lower heat add then mushrooms add in a bit more olive oil. Keep stirring. As you don’t want the bacon to brown, nor the mushrooms to start sticking, after about two minutes add the chicken broth on top. This will also help to get the browning bits that are starting at the bottom and stop all browning.

Along with the broth, add back in the reserved diced veggies, the drained white beans and the spinach. After a couple minutes this is where to season. Add herbs, salt, pepper. Cover with lid and give it a simmer on medium for 20 minutes. Take lid off every five minutes or so, give it all a good stir and replace lid.

After the 20 minutes, take out no less than 1/3 and no more than 1/2 of the hot soup, place in a food processor and puree carefully. Take off the top tube or cap and place a towel or pot holder on top for the puree. Return this mixture completely back into the soup..

Add white wine. After three to five minutes add cream. Mix, simmer another three to five minutes then add Parmesan. Lower the heat and stir more often as the added cheese can stick and start burning on the bottom if you’re not careful. After two or three more minutes, it’s done.

Depending on size of serving, makes 4-6. Serve with toasted polenta cheese rounds on the side.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Chefs are funny people. Normally they’re drawn to foods that are inherently flavorful. Sometimes, as a challenge I think, they are also drawn to things not so flavorful, but which if cooked a certain way can be made tasty and tender. Meats that are very lean such as rabbit or venison which need long time cooking and often a fat added to them come to mind.

Then there are these foods such as couscous and polenta which basically are, well, by themselves quite bland — and in recent years top chefs go nuts over it. Apparently because they can infuse taste to them. I sorta get it and I sorta don’t …. depends upon the food, the technique, the time it takes and my mood for that day. All of that said, of course this polenta is indeed tasty. For me the taste infusion comes from the long roast, browning and carmalization, and adding cheese that does it.

A quicky lesson on what polenta is and where it comes from. Yes, it’s definitely Italian. But not solely. It’s often referred to as Italian grits, and I’ve seen on television where cooks have taken either a southern grits recipe and “Italianized” it, and vica versa. Both are made from cornmeal, polenta from boiled cornmeal and is often classified as a “maize-based porridge”. According to Wikipedia, polenta under various other names is popular in many cuisines of many countries including such diverse and far-flung (from each other) countries as Cuba, Hungary, Georgia, Corsica, Peru, Mexico, Switzerland.

When it can be found in American supermarkets (which more often it can), it is either as stone-ground or coarse cornmeal which you can make into polenta, or a prepackaged “instant” polenta or the way I found it, as a premade tube or log infused with herbs. The tube I picked up was basil and garlic polenta. Of all the cooks out there, this seems to most often be found in Rachel Ray recipes. (Giada sometimes does instant and Mario of course has to make it from scratch).

Alright, enough history of this former “peasant food” now turned “premium product” and darling of cooks everywhere. Give this a whirl. Do I like it? Yes. Is it a bit of work when someone else might as easily suffice? Yes. But as said before, same can be said of couscous. Maybe it’s me, but when plain white rice with a little butter, salt and pepper tastes just great, and you either jazz it up or not, I’m not sure if these other bland-tasting grain products are necessarily worth the extra effort.

Does that mean polenta “whelms” me? Not necessarily. It tastes good. Especially when you go through the necessary motions and techniques and add tomato sauces or cheese or whatever. Anyway it is different and I do welcome a change from the “same old same old”. And yes, I’m betting you will indeed find this a very tasty and easy way to enjoy polenta, a nice and different side dish, especially to something else Italian. Bon appetito.

Toasted Polenta Cheese Rounds
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 lb prepackaged tube of polenta (or herbed polenta)
olive oil
salt
pepper
grated parmegan

Preheat oven to 375°F. Slice polenta log into 1/4 inch pieces. Put olive oil on both sides and season. Place on baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Place on top shelf of oven for 45-50 minutes until it starts to brown. Take out, liberally top each with grated parmegan. Place back in oven 10-15 minutes until cheese starts to brown. Makes 12-16 quarter-inch thick by roughly two-inch diameter rounds. About 3-4 servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Alright I know what I said before. And I’ve changed my mind. I’m allowed to do that. I said when it came to making waffles it has to be from scratch — and that still holds true. But for pancakes I said get lazy and usually just grab the pre-made mix with the big “B” on the yellow box. Well, I’ve changed my mind.

You see, here I am baking cookies around the Holidays time — rats, I’ll have to remember to get those recipes up here. Where was I? Ah, the cookies and cakes like the lava cake, cave-in cake and the banana Boston cream pie and puffed pastries too … after that how can I justify saving myself a mere 3.5 seconds by grabbing a premade mix instead of just making my hotcakes from scratch? So I played around a bit then came up with the mixture I like best.

Now there’s one thing about pancakes that I have always done, be it from scratch or box, and that is “have fun with them”. What mean by that is … why ever go with just plain pancakes? There’s just no reason for it. So I like to try different things. Make some “IHOP” at home, if you know what I mean. That’s one thing I have always done, said why go out for something because they make it special when you can do the same thing at home.

I remember 10-15 years ago my folks must have gone out of the house twice a day to McDonalds or wherever to pick up two cups of coffee. It was their “treat”. I bought them their first automatic drip coffee-make and said, “Here, have a treat everyday — all day long. Oh yeah, and save that money you’re spending at McDonalds.” Ok, so Ronald the clown did put a contract out on me, but then again Mr. Coffee became my best friend. (No I haven’t lost it. Just having a bit of silly fun.)

Here’s my tips or observations for making pancakes. First, no matter what you do, the second (and third, etc) batch you make will always get done very quickly compared to your first batch. I don’t care how hot you make the pan or the griddle or what you do, your first batch will take x amount of time, and the next ones you must –repeat, must — start checking the bottom of them no longer 10-15 seconds after you’ve put it down. Doesn’t matter how many times I do these, it still surprises me. Though it no longer catches me off guard.

Next tip, in between batches, stir the mix you have in your bowl with your big pouring spoon as it will have settled during the time you cooked that previous batch. Finally, this a tip you may or may not want to use. At my house, each batch I make gets placed on a “holding” plate and then I give each finished pancake a buttering. Some folks get really weird and territorial about their food and even though you are the cook they don’t want you to touch or butter their pancakes for you. LOL. Odd but true. I find they taste better when buttered (or margarine I should say) right as they come off the pan or the griddle and let that just sink right in. Again though in my house no one minds. Your mileage may vary.

Last but not least, a normal pan is going to take forever and you’ll only be able to do two or three normal-sized pancakes at a time (and that means four to six batches). I either do my pancakes on the two-burner cast iron griddle that is the flip side of my grill or I do them in my large 13″ non-stick frying pan. Seriously both of these are must-haves in your kitchen. The first is obvious, the second you can make four pancakes at a time, you can do 7-10 full strips of bacon, you can make a paella in it. If you don’t have one of these, get one and you will wonder how you ever got along without having one. Same goes for the cast-iron grill-and-griddle where you can make 6-8 pancakes at one time easily and 10 if you force it. They are major time savers so think about getting yourself them.

Basic Pancake Recipe
©2008 Harry Kenney

2 cups flour
3 tbsps sugar
2 tsps baking powder
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

vegetable oil (for the pan)
margarine (or butter)
pancake syrup

Chocolate Chip Pancakes
©2008 Harry Kenney

Add to the above:

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (or semi-sweet)
2 tbsps chocolate liqueur (Creme de Cacao recommended; Godiva Chocolate if you’re feeling rich or just want to use it up)

Put dry ingredients into bowl and mix well with spoon. Add in wet ingredients, use electric beater or whisk and mix until well incorporated. For chocolate chip pancakes: add chips and liqueur into mix.

Spoon onto well-oiled medium-high large frying pan or griddle with a large spoon (so as to make similar sized pancakes), about 1/4-1/3 cup. Turn when see bubbles. Also do a visual peek of pancake bottoms with flipper to know when to turn. You should turn just once, though no problem with multiple flips. When each pancake or batch is done, place on holding platter. Butter each, optional.

Stir batter at start of each new batch before pouring into pan. Also regrease (oil) pan each time. Serve with side of bacon or sausage and pancake syrup. Makes roughly one dozen pancakes.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Sometimes food is delicious to the tastebuds, but not so delcious to the eyes. Meat loaf comes to mind. So does split pea soup, among others. Veal piccata must unfortunately be counted among these. The photos here this time, do not do it justice. (And a quick look around the Net showed me for good or bad, none of the other images I saw taken by others did it that much justice either.) And the fact this recipe falls right after the brilliant colors of salmon no doubt makes it seem duller still, image-wise.

But enough. Not every meal can spark all the senses. What this one lacks in being picturesque it more than makes up for in taste as well as in aroma. Picatta means “sharp” in Italian and it has come to mean a variety of dishes that use thin cuts of meat, cut thinly and/or pounded thinly, cooked in a pan and served with a sharp sauce, provided by the lemon and capers.

And in this dish also added to by the dry sherry. Some dishes say use dry white wine. Fan that I am of that, three reasons for doing with the dry sherry this time. The first time I made this dish was a couple decades ago from The Frug’s recipes (Jeff Smith). Next, how often outside of Asian cooking do you get to use a nice sherry? And most importantly, third, it adds more of that piccata “bite” that we’re looking for here, where as the wine might soften that too much, take some of that away. And that’s not desired.

Before I go into the nutritional and health elements of eating veal, let’s quickly get past the talk of eating veal at all. In other words, the whole “veal bad” animal rights thing. Suffice to say conditions in veal farming and the veal industry have improved dramatically in the past two decades thanks to the activists. Some say it’s enough, some say it isn’t. You wouldn’t be reading this — nor I writing it — if this issue was of great concern. As for myself, I take a practical Native American perspective when it comes to animals and food. Hunting to put an animal on a wall or make a fur coat is (among other things) a horrible waste and soley for ego. Whereas food raised to be food is to be eaten. And as humans we eat food. And this is the natural way of life. Period.

Now on to the postive assessment of veal as food. In terms of nutrition, low-fat and cost … Veal is lean; it has very little fat. This also means there is little waste when compared to other animal meat. Because of this a pound of veal can often vield three or four servings. Some have suggested when comparision shopping to evaluate the cost per serving instead of the cost per pound when thinking about veal.

Veal is an excellent source of protein with “balanced amino acid profile containing proteins of a high quality”. Also it is a superior source of B-complex vitamins, especially niacin, zinc B12 and B6. It is also a good source of iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. A trimmed, cooked three oz. serving of veal contains on average 166 calories and only 5.6 grams of fat.

Back to this specific dish, surprisingly one does not find too many veal piccata recipes around. And those that I’ve stumbled across, not sure, they seem to have lost something in translation. Beside the advice of using wine instead of the sherry, many advocate using chicken broth. Are they crazy? That even further deadens the sharp taste that is the entire reason for this dish in the first place. Why even make this dish — I want to ask these other cooks and their recipes — if you want to deaden the inherent sharpness and pleasant bite that what makes this dish?

No idea. Maybe, because many folks are more used to seeing chicken piccata something got mixed in along the way (like adding chicken broth, yuck) which was never supposed to be in the dish in the first place. Obviously chicken piccata — which I love too of course — is more prevelent as the poultry is more widely found and is viewed as a less costly an alternative. That said though, piccata was foremost and originally made as a veal dish; it’s the others that have become variants off the master.

If you have never had veal (other than as part of your meatloaf or meatball dishes), this recipe is an excellent one to introduce yourself to this lean, nutritious and delicious meat.

Veal Piccata
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 lb veal scallops (or veal cutlets pounded to 1/4-1/8 inch thickness)
flour for dredging
salt
pepper
3 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsps capers, diced
1 1/3 cups dry sherry
olive oil
butter
parsley (fresh or dried flakes)

Take the precut veal scallops or the pounded veal slices and dredge in a mixture of salt, pepper and flour. Place into medium heat frying pan with hot olive oil. Roughly two minutes per side. Take out and reserve.

Pour in dry sherry and scrape up all the bits left in the pan and mix well. Add lemon juice and capers. Mix and reduce to half. (If not thick enough, sprinkle one teaspoon of extra flour in and mix well.) After reduction add some butter to make richer.

About 30 seconds later reintroduce the veal into the pan. One minute on each side. Add parsley in now or on plate before serving, your choice. Take out of pan. Pour sauce on top. Serve. Makes four servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

I love salmon. I try to have it at least once every month. What can you say about something that is healthy and fresh and yet something about it’s texture, it’s thickness reminds one of a steak in so many ways. Yes, silly as it sounds, in many ways I think of it as a “steak of the seas”.

Often I prepare it in the most simple and pure of ways: salt, pepper, little oil to help it cook, and maybe a twist of fresh lemon. Period. Sometimes, like now, I like to vary it with a sweet and tangy glaze. No matter what ingredients I add though, there’s only one way to cook salmon, in my opinion: Grilled.

I know, Oven isn’t bad, broiler with a fish this oily is a fire hazard, alas. And poaching? Well, poaching is probably fine but — truely, I’m more of a crunchy crust person I have to admit and not a big poaching fan at all. In the end, there’s nothing like grilled. Outdoor especially over hot charcoal; that’s the best. But when that’s not to be had, especially here in the Northeast part of the US in January, there’s always the trusty stand-by. The two-burner cast iron grill.

If you don’t have one. Get one. Now seriously how often have you heard me say that about anything? Correct. I don’t think I ever have. There’s just some things that are indispensible and not substituable. Wait you say, what about those frying pans that have the raised grill bar thingys in them? Nope. They don’t go high enough. There is no where for the fat to drain, so you are still going to be frying things in their own oils, not true grilling at all.

What about those electric grills? How about those George Forman grills? Although I haven’t actually tried them, from what I can see they probably work alright. I guess if I had a choice between the frying pan and an electric grill I would go with the latter. But a choice between a grill over the fire and a grill running alternating electrical current, gimme the stove and the cast iron anyday. Call me caveman. Call me purist. But it I can’t have my outdoor brikets, it’s indoor stove grill.

Now I have to give a big doff of the hat here to master grillsman and Iron Chef, Bobby Flay. First, this glaze definitely originates from his delicious brown sugar and mustard glaze. Hey, if I borrow or heavily base something on some else’s I tell you! Natch, I had to mess with it some and made significant changes and additions that while you could compare and no doubt tell his glaze was the “parent”, this is related yet different enough to be it’s “child”.

Another thing I about this recipe is I followed something else Bobby said on one of his shows about his personal preference when grilling salmon, that sometimes he eats the skin, and sometimes he takes it off. It depends on if he is able to get it to a certain level of crispiness. When he does, he eats it, when it’s for whatever reason not happening for him, he takes it off.

Now, I’ve always taken it off. Or to be more precise, when I’ve bought it before it was (not sure which one, but) a different type of salmon, cut into thick rectangular “steaks” and without skin. This time, I ended up getting CoHo Salmon, and instead of a steak it was the long filet. And it came with skin. Thick black and silver skin. My first thought was, ugg, take the skin off. But then I thought of what Chef Flay said, and thought, hell, I will definitely give that a try and proceed similarily, if it worked, awesome, if it didn’t work, I’ll take the skin off.

And as someone who’s been doing his best to perfect crispy skin on poultry, I managed to my delight to pull this one off as well. Yummy, crispy skin attached to a light, delicate, moist fish. You’re definitely going to enjoy this one.

Usually my photos speak for themselves, so other than the mouse-over little notes that pop up, I don’t have captions, and I rarely ever any special “notes”, but this time is an exception, so …

Important notes about the photos. The first photo of the raw fish, skin side up shows (at least it shows on the one on the right) the cross-hatched scoring I did to both. This is necessary to help achieve the crunch and crispness. Also, in the second photo of the cooking fish with the skin side up there are two notes. First, the black you see is not burn; it is the color of the skin of the coho which is silver in places and black in others. The second important note is this is the first turn of the fish, not the second, so this is only stage one of the crispy skin. And look how good it looks already.

Grilled Salmon Fillets with Crispy Skin and Asian-Fusion Glaze
©2008 Harry Kenney

2 coho salmon filets, 6-8 ounces each
olive oil
salt
pepper

glaze:

4 tbsps dijon
3 tbsps soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp finely ground ginger or ginger powder
1/4 tsp sesame seed oil
2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsps light brown sugar
2 tbsps honey
salt
pepper

First, put all the ingredients together mentioned and create your glaze. Next, get your grill (outdoor preferably, or indoor preferably a cast-iron double burner grill or an electric one) ready and turn on to high heat.

Take your filets, score the skin on back both horizontally and vertically to make squares or a cross-hatch pattern. Rub olive oil on both sides. Season the front flesh part as you normally would with salt and pepper. When seasoning the skin side, use two to three times more salt than normally.

Put oil over your hot grill and immediately slap down your fillets skin side down. Leave about a minute more than you normally would, checking the underside occasionally to ensure cooking and browning but not burning. After about four or five minutes and right before you are ready to turn, liberally brush on the glaze all over the flesh side, then turn that over so it faces the grill.

You should see some very nice crispness on the now skin top side. Leave the flesh part down for another two-to-three minutes. Do not over cook this. Give a light brush of the glaze on the skin and turn over again. Now with the topside up, again liberally brush the glaze all over the flesh. After a minute or so more, take off of grill and serve.

Depending on how hungry your guests are this can serve two. But I found the pieces rather large and was able to feed four and still considered these nice sized servings. Myself I served this with steamed Italian flat green beans with minced onions and a helping of wild rice on the side.

©2008 Harry Kenney

If you enjoyed my very recent Chocolate-Raspberry Lava Cake recipe, then you are going to love this “makeover” or redeaux as well. Remember the original lava cake was made as a mistake. And this dish came about when I messed up my lava cake. So much for the saying two wrongs don’t make a right!

Think of it almost as a crunchy chocolate pudding “slash” cake. Obviously since it never leaves the dish it can’t “lava” out like the original. And as you see the cracking on top in the photo, you see why I had to call this chocolate cave-in cake.

I wanted to make something special for when my brother came over. And he has one of those intestinal things where you can’t eat little seeds. And I ran out of my original jar of raspberry jam and when I reached for the spare I had in the cupboard, turns out I’d mistakenly purchased preserves containing seeds (mistake one). That meant no raspberry sauce so I switched to orange, and instead of sauce, whipped cream.

Mistake two came when I forgot to grease my ramekins. Ooops! But wow what a delicious mistake! Plus, this recipe is even doubly fool-proof then the other one. Since you don’t have to take it out of the ramekin, even less chance to mess anything up. And yet, lip-smacking good. My bro’s girlfriend thought it was going to be as rich and dark and too sweet as a death by chocolate cake, and was surprised how it had just the right amount of sweetness but not that overpowering kind.

Btw, as always, when a recipe calls for an orange liqueur as this one, I say use Triple Sec instead of Grand Marnier because they’re the same taste, but the former costs about 10 times less while the second has a better marketing name and bigger price tag. Period.

By the way, did I mention this version has 2.5 to 3 times the amount of liquid chocolate inside?

Chocolate-Orange Cave-In Cake
©2008 Harry Kenney

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz butter
5-6 oz milk chocolate (or semisweet) chocolate chips
3 tbsps orange liqueur

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 egg yokes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Orange Whipped Cream
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 pint heavy cream
3 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
6 tbsps orange liqueur

Note: This recipe is based on 6 oz. ramekin size.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs and yokes and sugar together and cream. Over double-boiler melt bittersweet chocolate with butter. Slowly pour into beating mixture. Add flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and orange liqueur until well mixed.

With six ramekins (not greased) placed on top of baking sheet, fill the ramekins 2/3s to 3/4s of the way with cake mixture. Place about an ounce of chocolate chips (10-15 chips) into the middle of each and let sink. Pour rest of cake mixture on top. Place in oven for 22-28 minutes until see good cracking on top and firm around the sides.

Take ingredients for whipped cream and place in mixer (or use hand beater), adding orange liqueur half way through.

When cakes are done, let cool a few minutes. Top each cake with orange whipped cream and serve in ramekin with spoon. Don’t forget since you’re serving it in the cup itself, clean the cup off first before giving it to your guests. Makes six servings.

©2008 Harry Kenney

So how do I follow up a recipe on prime rib? Why, this way. Am I crazy? Like a fox. How can I top prime rib? How does a successful recording artist top a monster selling album? The same way. You don’t. You go different. And that’s the thing here at cooking @ home …. It’s home cooking. And that runs the gamet. Or at least it should. You might see on this page prime rib and stuffed mushrooms, but you might also see french fries and meatloaf and beef stew.

Home cooking doesn’t have to be “plebian” for lack of a better word. It can be (although I have problems with this word too) “gourmet”. On the same note it doesn’t have to be all gourmet either. It’s all of it. Why? Because that’s exactly what cooking at home means. You — and I — are doing this at home, and we might have hot dogs and soup one day and filet mignon with a panna cotta dessert the following. Same person cooking, same kitchen. We can and we should do what we want, and that is from simple everyday meals up to five-star dining. At home. And on that note …

I am a bread eater. One of those who’s always loved bread and butter with a meal. (Mind you, in this circumstance I actually mean spreadable margarine). Just always loved “the sauce” or “the gravy” and I’ve always enjoyed scooping up, sopping or just plain having along side a pasta dish or a stew, bread and butter or roll and butter. Maybe that’s a working man’s blue collar thing? I have no idea.

That said though, there was a very trendy, way ahead of it’s time salad place in Reading Terminal Market in Center City Philadelphia about 15 years ago or more. I was working down there and would often go to “the salad lady” for my lunch. Imagine someone who was making pasta and rice salads before you ever heard of such things. Seriously. What is now more or less “average” fare that can be gotten at a fancy super market deli section, when The Salad Lady’s place was there in the Market, it was relatively unique.

I bring this up because she always gave away slices of different homemade breads (yes buttered, and in her case it meant real butter, btw) with every salad meal (provided you wanted it of course). So, ok, I guess she was the Salad and Bread Lady then. Point is, if she was ahead of her time — and she was — accompanying bread with a salad was in a way “chi-chi” …. And you can’t be chi-chi and blue collar at the same time, can you?

Which brings me back to my quickie garlic bread. Because I get such enjoyment at having bread — and garlic bread especially — and mine especially because it is rarely “just garlic” — my garlic bread is always garlic and cheese bread — I like to have it often. And to me, the oven or the broiler is just too much work. Mostly because if you take your eye off of it for a moment, wham, it’s burnt.

This is ovenless, broiler-less garlic bread, using two of my favorite cooking tools that folks so under use — the toaster and the microwave. Basically, I make mine as though I had a toaster oven (which I don’t). Why do it this way? It’s quick. Is it that much quicker than the oven? Hmm. Probably not in one way. But then the difference to me between four minutes and (when you include pre-heating, twelve minutes … Let’s put it this way, it’s not a lot of time difference but it is still three times faster.

Most importantly I can see what’s happening. There’s a greater amount of control, partly due to the incremental stages I have set up and the fact that things will automatically shut off at those stages. It’s essentially, no-fail. Whereas with the broiler method (and to a slightly lesser extent the oven method), should you misjudge by as little as half-a-minute, you can turn broiler garlic bread into blackened garbage. So you went frantic and you wasted 12 minutes while holding up dinner. Plus, if you still want it, you have to redo from scratch again, while the rest of your meal goes cold. Which means you probably will not bother to redo your smouldering garlic bread afterall.

Since this dish is basically an extra side to my main meal, it means I’m already running around the kitchen doing the last minute cooking and setting up to serve stuff when I’m making this. And at that time it’s very easy to forget something in a broiler. My way, things don’t get out of control. Plus it’s four minutes. Mind you this even works if you’re in a pinch with white bread toasted and put into the microwave, but natch, rolls are ten times better.

So, all of this said, I do it this way pretty much to have it more often. Would I serve this to a bunch of guests? Probably not. Two reasons, one, the oven or broiler is going to be better, by far — but with the caveat that you keep a very close eye to it and really watch it. Second, my toaster meets microwave works because it’s for one or two people. You cannot fit more than two atop the toaster nor in the microwave at a time. With guests, even if its a total of four people, you can fit the bread onto a baking sheet easily. So easily you could make garlic bread for six or even 12 people at one time in the oven (maybe 6 in the broiler). The question then is would I do it this quickie way for guests? No firstly because it’s impossible, but also if were it somehow possible (as though I had a giant toaster oven or five toasters plugged together or whatever sillyness you can think of) I’d still do it in the broiler because if would be better, and they are guests and I want to serve them the very best and it would be worth the effort. In fact for a bunch of folks, it would be simpler making them all at once too. The dynamics in that respect would have changed.

But for everyday, for having it often, for the taste and the three times faster and the no-fail, won’t burn, control of it. Yep I like my quickie garlic and cheese bread just fine. Hope you do too!

Quick Cheese and Garlic Bread
©2008 Harry Kenney

two long rolls, preferrably Italian
margarine
garlic powder
grated parmegan

Cut or open the rolls, place a top the toaster as though it were a grill. First we’ll toast the bottom of it. Now, no matter what setting or numbers are on your slider or knobs, think of them in fifths or percentages. Put your settings at 20% of what it should be. Place down the slots to turn the sides on and toast the bottom. When it pops up, turn the inside of the rolls to face down, put on another 40% (a total of 60%) dark and again push down the two slots. When they pop up, check the roll. If it’s getting toasted move it over an inch, if it’s still fairly white, leave where they are, now push the slider or knob to 100% darkness.

Have a paper tower ready in front of or next to the toaster. When the toaster pops the third time, take off the rolls, crust down, and butter them. Now liberally sprinkle on garlic powder to taste. Do the same if you wish with grated parmegan. You see the paper towel has a few functions, to catch the excess seasonings, to transport the rolls to and from the microwave as well as to serve as a bed that will stop the roll from getting soggy in the microwave. Now, place them in the microwave for about 45-55 seconds on high (based on an 1100 watt microwave, longer if you have a less powerful 600-800 microwave). When done, serve with your meal.